Mexico invites FBI to assist in investigation of Mormons killed by cartel

Framed by heavily armed Mexican authorities, relatives of the LeBaron family mourn at the site where nine U.S. citizens, three women and six children related to the extended LeBaron family, were slaughtered when cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs along a dirt road near Bavispe, at the Sonora-Chihuahua border, Mexico, Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019. Three women and six of their children, related to the extended LeBaron family, were gunned down in an attack while traveling along Mexico's Chihuahua and Sonora state border on Monday. (Marco Ugarte/AP)

The Mexican government formally invited the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in an investigation of the ambush killings of nine Mormons with dual citizenship last Monday.

The Foreign Ministry said it sent a diplomatic note to the U.S. embassy in Mexico City.

Advertisement

“The Mexican government reiterates its commitment to investigate the facts, in order to ... offer justice to the affected families,” it said in a statement.

FBI agents who participate in the investigation will coordinate Mexican investigators and not be armed, the statement added.

Advertisement

The FBI accepted Mexico’s invitation in a statement of its own.

“The FBI remains committed to working alongside our international partners to help bring justice to the perpetrators of this heinous act of violence," the statement said.

The FBI previously offered assistance last week following the ambush murders of six children and three women who belonged to a breakaway Mormon community.

Following the murders, President Trump offered Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador help in battling the drug cartels. President Lopez Obrador declined the offer.

“We declared war, and it didn’t work,” Lopez Obrador said. "That is not an option.”

The ambush was the latest in an escalating series of violent acts committed by cartel forces.

Last month, Mexican government forces released one of the sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after cartel gunmen launched a counterattack following his capture in Culiacan, Sinaloa.